Surgical personnel are trained in surgical techniques and procedures through a combination of teaching tools. Books and other written source materials are utilized. Video tapes and other audiovisual materials are also employed. Surgical personnel also routinely attend lectures, seminars and the like.
Surgical personnel receive clinical training and experience through preceptor and proctor arrangements. These clinical programs may employ actual patients, corpses, live animal models, deceased animal models, or a combination thereof. Regardless of the model employed, the objective is to provide surgical personnel with a training system which will educate the personnel to the clinical phenomena which may be expected in performing a given technique or procedure.
In providing surgical personnel training, it is desirable to minimize to the extent possible the use of live animal models. However, the use of non-living models in training programs, e.g., foam organs through "pelvic trainers", has heretofore limited the ability of surgical personnel to experience likely clinical stimuli and responses.